‘Record’ rise in student nurses including 30% more men

The data, published 28 days after the clearing process, showed 34,190 student nurses had been accepted onto a programme as part of the 2020 intake, a rise of 22% compared with 2019.

“Never before have so many people started a career in nursing at UK universities"

Brian Webster-Henderson

The 3,150 men starting nursing courses this year was also the highest ever and represented a 30% rise from last year.

Acceptances were up among all age groups including a 23% rise in mature students.

It comes after the government issued a challenge to the health and education sectors to expand their intake of student nurses this year, as it seeks to meet its target of delivering 50,000 more nurses by 2025.

Professor Brian Webster-Henderson, chair of the Council of Deans of Health, which represents nursing faculties in the UK, congratulated educators for “achieving this extraordinary increase in nursing students”.

“Never before have so many people started a career in nursing at UK universities,” he said.

Brian Webster-Henderson

“In a year of unprecedented challenges, healthcare educators have worked incredibly hard and hand in hand with their health and social care colleagues to meet the government’s growth target for nursing students.

“We now have to ensure that this increase in student numbers is matched by investment in universities’ infrastructure and staff.”

Mike Adams, Royal College of Nursing director for England, welcomed the rise but stressed the increase rate had been “much slower” per year since the removal of the bursary in England.

He also said any increase in nursing students needed to be viewed in the context of "approximately 40,000 nursing vacancies in the NHS in England alone".

However, he said: “It is wonderful to see so many new students interested in our profession and testament to the visibility, commitment and leadership of all of our nursing staff through this pandemic."

On the same day as the UCAS figures were published, latest NHS workforce statistics from June 2020 showed the number of nurses working for the NHS in England had increased by 14,199 since June 2019.

“We need PPE, we need access to testing and we need to actually be valued"

Anthony Johnson

However, the government said these figures included some former health professionals who had returned to practice to help during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the data also showed a further decline in the number of health visitors, from 7,026 in June 2019 to 6,652 in June 2020.

Health and social care Secretary Matt Hancock described the increase in nurses as "fantastic" and said it would put the NHS in the “best possible position to continue tackling this global health emergency”.

“With the latest UCAS figures out today showing a record 23% rise in people accepting places on nursing courses in England, we are also well on our way to delivering 50,000 more nurses by the end of this Parliament," he added.

Anthony Johnson

However, Anthony Johnson, lead organiser of Nurses United and a registered nurse, criticised the government for celebrating the increases on the same day that figures also showed that deaths among NHS workers had doubled.

In first quarter of 2020-21, which covers April to June when the coronavirus pandemic was at its peak, 404 deaths in service were recorded among NHS workers in England.

At the same time last year there had been 231 deaths.

The average number of deaths for this same quarter over the past 10 years was 214.

Mr Johnson told Nursing Times: “We need PPE, we need access to testing and we need to actually be valued for once which is why we’re getting organised and standing up because if we don’t, we know what happens when we leave it up to Westminster politicians."

Over recent months Nurses United and the NHS Workers Say No group have teamed up to organise a number of demonstrations across the country over pay and other issues.